Data for Pointman Technology presented at AACR

EKF Diagnostics, the global diagnostics company, announces that its PointMan™ DNA enrichment technology has been identified as an easy and useful method for non-invasively determining plasma EGFR T790M mutation status in late stage lung cancer patients.

This is according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015, April 18 - 22, 2015, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In a scientific poster entitled, ‘Non-invasive analysis for T790M mutations of EGFR using a selective amplification method’ [1], researchers from the Kanazawa University Hospital (Kanazawa, Japan) presented a study aiming to develop a blood-based, non-invasive approach to detecting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M mutation.

This is associated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) drug resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); where, generally, T790M positive patients have a much lower overall survival rate. Since tissue availability limits the genotyping of EGFR T790TM mutation in a clinical setting, a liquid biopsy-based approach would provide an ideal alternative to enable the identification of a potential change in treatment path in late stage lung cancer patients.

The PointMan EGFR DNA enrichment kit, a novel method for selective amplification of genotype specific sequences, was used to successfully detect EGFR T790M mutations in the plasma DNA of advanced NSCLC patients. In all cases where T790M mutations were detected in tumour tissues, these mutations were also identified in plasma DNA.

Andrew Webb, CEO EKF Molecular Diagnostics, commented, “These data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015 provides a significant piece of independent evidence for the enabling of liquid biopsies for EGFR mutation detection in late stage lung cancer patients using our PointMan DNA enrichment technology. The use of such enrichment in a liquid biopsy will lead to improved clinical outcomes for patients as we learn more about how mutation status changes during treatment.”

EKF Diagnostics

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc is a manufacturer and distrbutor of IVD products. It has three core divisions: Point of Care including hemoglobin and HbA1c analyzers; Central Laboratory including the manufacture of enzymes and clinical chemistry; and Molecular Diagnostics which incorporates a unique DNA enrichment technology, PointMan, and a portfolio of molecular testing services.